Man vs. machine
Technology is great — as long as it works. Take for example, a computer. A computer is kind of like a vehicle, giving warning signs of impending doom.
When a hard drive is going bad, a person gets the hint of the demise of the world as he or she knows it, by the blinking of the monitor, the computer "locking up," and the ultimate sign, when the monitor goes black.
My computer at the office had been showing the tell-tale signs — the hard drive sounding more like a coffee grinder than a computer and error messages popping up on the monitor whenever I was trying to save a 1,000-word story.
All is well now, thanks to the in-house and long-distance computer gurus.
Another example of "great technology as long as it works" is a digital camera.
The dinosaur cameras with 35-millimeter film are becoming more and more extinct. Digital cameras are fast, easy, and less expensive to operate.
A person has "instant" pictures. You take the picture, check it for clarity, take another one if needed, download it on a computer, and print. Voila! Perfection
Saturday was a big picture day for me. I hit garage sales in Marion and Hillsboro, the Lion's Club Car Show in Central Park, and went back for the trophy presentations.
I clicked away all day long. Checking the camera from time to time to make sure the pictures were being saved and the battery was staying charged.
I felt good at the end of the day — confident that in all those pictures I had taken, surely there would be some useable ones.
Lo and behold, I go to the office on Sunday to download the pictures, and the card is empty. Evidently, the card had malfunctioned and deleted the pictures.
Now, I know from my own experiences and those of others, cameras with film can malfunction, too.
The film gets jammed, exposure occurs in the darkroom during processing. Lots of things can go wrong.
Our world is full of technical difficulties.
Which brings me back to my original point. Technology is great, as long as it works.
The only common thread between technology and errors are us humans.
Hmmmmm.
— SUSAN BERG
